I could see instantly that Alice was filled with both rage and regret at what had happened and also guilt the reason for which becomes apparent fairly early on. uk/landing-page/quercus/quercus-company-information/">The data controller is Quercus Editions Ltd. The story is punctuated with various people's reminiscences of her from a tribute page set up by her sister, and these were fun to read. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after this less than successful get together, Leni sadly dies in a tragic bike accident, and the story follows Belinda, Alice, Will and Tony as they navigate their way through their grief and their own personal feelings towards the part that they feel they played in Leni’s life and death. I struggled to get through the first half or so but found once I reached perhaps around the 55% mark I finally started to really engage with each individual character.

It is also about them coming to terms with Leni’s death and getting over the grief and living life to the fullest as Leni would have wanted her family to be.I now live in Bath with my husband and three young children and divide my time between writing and looking after them.

Secretly, he’s tormented by the part he played in Leni’s death … and the thing about secrets is, they always come out eventually.Their fond recounting of stories about Leni was wonderful and following them all through their grief was so sad yet uplifting. Lina McKenzie was the life of the party and also the glue that held her somewhat dysfunctional family together. As they gradually piece together the puzzle that they so carelessly let shatter all those years ago, and with it, form new connections, as well as re-connecting with old ones. I liked the premise of this story, but I found this to be slow and depressing that I struggled to connect to the characters although I finished it.

No-one does real life better than Lucy Diamond * Veronica Henry * A compelling and beautifully written tale of love, grief and family. Especially as we all know dealing with the aftermath of losing a loved one can be a challenge and have such a long and devastating impact. There are lots of different family dynamics within the book, yet the author deals with these in an uncomplicated and simple way, creating and resolving deep rooted family issues. Scattered by grief and seeking comfort in the unlikeliest of places, can the McKenzies find their way back to each other?

There are also some twists and turns throughout the story, which add a little bit of intrigue into Leni’s story. I loved that the supporting characters (Jackie, Ray, Jacob etc) really complemented the story, and I liked that characters such as Jackie and Ray were actually nice and weren’t made out to have that evil step parent vibe!

She does make a brief appearance at the beginning, when the story takes the reader back to her birthday party before the accident but after that she’s no longer with us, at least not in person. What we see are human beings going through messy, conflicting, and complex emotions due to losing someone they loved so dearly. In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni’s last weeks – but her discoveries only lead to more questions. I think because at this point things started to happen and the secrets and issues that each person had been hiding started to come to the fore. The characters in the book were beautifully written, I loved getting to know their stories and how they all pulled together was heart warming.

She has constant reminders of what she had but once lost as she sees her family members doing well in life or she thinks. It becomes clear that all of them are fighting their own secret demons and are struggling to come to terms with Leni’s death. I absolutely loved the author's writing - her words are fluid and poetic, which makes the story engaging and deeply passionate. Tony sets up a WhatsApp group to try and talk to everyone again and get them all talking to each other, which was an actual stroke of genius on his part as things start to slowly resolve themselves.